Entry level foils boards for beginners

Hey daddycool I've been eyeing that off.

At the moment I've been through the house and sold everything of mine that's not nailed down. I have saved $1750 from that so far & I have another $500 coming in 3 months. So I'm at zeeko/LF level but slowly rising in time for spring/summer.

Maybe patto will do me a good price just to shut this thread down

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EB said..
How to they go with seaweed?

They can collect a lot quite quickly - haven't hit any yet but have heard from others they're not good with seaweed.

That's some beast skeb. If you can ride that you can foil pretty well already I'm sure. Please do a review of the alloy zeeko - very very interested, there aren't many real world tests out there apart from the mag review which could be biased.

I'm the same, even with a 2nd hand KFA mk3, going from $1750 to $2750 is a huge jump, and that much harder to justify to myself and friends/family.

My goal will be open east coast ocean too.

I'm also wondering at what price point a FF becomes a worthy starter foil. Is it $1000?

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EB said..
How to they go with seaweed?

Seaweed is bad but you can jump it off.
Lets see how we go at this years L2L :)

I agree with you Marvin. I tried the homemade one and got up enough to go "im in".... but i refuse to ride it again as its very unpredictable, so I went with what appeared a good free-ride foil. . im expecting that it will do for a season, but will prob end up on a race foil.

I also came to the conclusion the board plays a big part when Learning. u need it to float and be fairly quick. problem with the wakeskate was its a wakeboard one with full rocker, super slow and needed a heap of power to get it moving (and im 95kg) so as soon as u came up on the foil there was too much kite... its crap

Id say as the foiling population builds there will be great value beginners ones cheap enough for a crack and not lose big bucks and good priced race ones second hand too. .I predict im 12 months early...I will no doubt lose a small fortune on it like i did when i started formula boarding a few years ago.... oh well.

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INTHELOOP said..
I reckon you should rather save up and get a well designed/ made foil. The foiling sensation and performance is so different compared to those draggy and slow freeride/ carbon/ alloy foils. The board is also very important. You want a board as light as possible with enough volume for your weight. Heavy boards will mean a much higher risk for ankle and knee twisting. The more weight on your board the harder the impact when crashing. I have tried lot of the foils out there. The Alpine Foil for example feels like a truck and is pretty slow, upwind angle is ok with that massive front wing.Build quality not bad, the Carbon strut is fairly soft. They are made by an Italian mob in Slovenia.
Its good to have those cheap foils because it gets more people into foiling but $1500-2k is still a lot of money for something that you outgrow after 10 sessions and then probably cant sell on.
My advice is try before you buy :)There is people all around Australia foiling now and most are happy to let people try their foil and get more foiling buddies.Happy foiling!

Can you be more specific about the Alpine? They claim it can reach 32kn, which is pretty fast! These guys have been on the market for quite a while and offer a variety of different wings of course if you used and older version and maybe a low wind or beginner wing it felt draggy.

Mind that not everybody who foils are into racing. Manufacturers like Horue and Ketos now have some set up for freestyle and wave riding so I am not too sure what you mean by "something that you outgrow after 10 sessions and then probably cant sell on."

Foiling is sort of only starting in Australia but have been Europe for nearly 10 years. The manufacturers are pretty much all over there so I don't think you can't get wrong by getting one of their products.

I don't think bashing your competitors will help you sell more of your KFA and even though the MK3 and the new Mako look like a pretty well made foil, there is still a big gap (in price) between them and a turd like the LF fish foil. Seriously, what is the point of saying : "They are made by an Italian mob in Slovenia" ? Most the kite you sell are made in china, aren't they? Does it make it a bad product?

BMW have a top notch factory in Poland were they make carbon fiber components for their electric cars so I guess the technologie is already there....

I reckon it will take a while to outgrow a foil like the Alpine 5.0 but even if it is the case, the second hand market will be even better.

Does anybody with alloy fuselages have issues with bending? That was the biggest issues we had when we made and tested alloy foils. We ran into the ground/sandbanks and the fuselage would deform.

Ok so I mounted the Zeeko Alloy on my 5'10 surfboard (after some carbon patches and resin plugs installed) and had a crack.

wind was 12-17kn pretty flat ocean and i flew an 11m rebel. We parked a car and did an dw run (well that was the plan). First half hour was frustrating cause we were sort of trying to go dw and the crashes are brutal. Anyway all of a sudden it clicked and I was off. good length foil runs both directions with good upwind angle (felt as pointed as my formula board).

By the time the session ended i was trying tacks and gybes (touched down .. not on foil).

Couple of things i noticed. its way easier and crusier up wind. as soon as you go on a reach its bloody scary!! Fast!! and the crashes are painfull. seriously.

Anyway first impressions are its a really good foil, plenty fast enough for me (at the moment). i cant imagine being comfy going down wind... its so fast and it hurts.. I find a formula board way easier dw... and far less painfull.

So in the end we went back up wind to our car :)

Any advise on how the bear away would be much appreaciated.

I'll try and get some pictures of it in action next time.

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dusta said..

skebstebamal said..




Any advise on how the bear away would be much appreaciated.

pucker up your bumhole , close your eyes and scream like a little girl :)

Yep I have that tip going already dusta :) I found that came naturally.

Lofty- I think the point is that what you're saying is valid however if you're just giving it a go you don't go out and buy top of the line gear. You can, if you can afford to go that way, or you can try to find a good compromise and work your way up.

Skeb - thanks for updates. You've obviously done some foiling on the home made board, and some race board/directional work before, but still 1/2 hour for it to click with long foils both ways sounds pretty awesome to me. How did you find the ocean to start? I'll have a choice of a limited flat-water estuary run that only works at top of tide and certain wind directions with sandbars in every direction, or open ocean. Guess I'll have to try both..

New player on the market - SU-2 foils out of... you guessed it... Poland. (slightly ironic following Livit/ITL's discussion..)
They already make a bunch of twin tips.

Beginner rig in Carbon for 915 Euro or $1375 plus postage, taxes, etc.
Delta with no Yaw fin by the look.

Other wings & boards to follow. Very interesting.







store.su-2.com/
www.sieplywa.pl/siewie/7994/Pierwszy_polski_kite_foil

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INTHELOOP said..

I've tried that wing/foil posted before in photos. It definitely doesn't go 32knots for me. Regardless if you are into racing, jumping, waves, freestyle or whatever, a well designed foil will do it all and it will do it well. The greatest sensation is going fast. I especially enjoy high speed maneuvers.
Try different foils and you will feel the difference as soon as you pop up onto the foil.Foiling has been in Australia pretty much for as long as it has been in Europe or better, France, has been at it and developing foiling for the last 3 years. Isnt Mango Carafino the real pioneer of the sport? lolsI estimate we have almost about 100 people foiling in Australia and its growing quickly. I am not bashing anybody, just trying to give some real feedback. I will always give honest feedback based on experience. Manufacturing in Slovenia is definitely cheaper than Italy and Poland. Poland have some of the best boat building yards in world. At the end any new foiler out there is great and its good to see so many people getting stoked on it.

Well, the wing on the photo is their freeride wing, not their race wing......

As for the "do it all" foil, the offer available of the market just shows that different profiles work better for different styles. Just have a look at the freestyle vid from Horue and have a read about the specs of their freestyle foil H13. At only 1.5kg I am guessing it does have some effects on the riding. Just as they say on their website, the freestyle foil is more of second foil to have in your quiver.


Just like the kites, foils are different and to be honest even though I started with a full carbon foil, I wish the alloys were available at the time. It took me over a year to take the leap and finally decide to fork out the big $ without even knowing whether I would like it or not. Alloys are cheap, readily available and spare parts are cheap too so if you bend a fuselage it won't cost you more than $300 to replace.

Bring on the cheapies!

inspiring video:

good find bolgo. Reviews pretty much as expected - LF slow and heavy but tough & easy, sroka decent & good price but fiddly connection system & short mast, F-one the one they love but costs twice as much.

I just noticed that LF have another stubby surfboard called the "Happy Pill" which they call a wakesurfer. I'm guessing they've recycled them, with some foil plate attachment rails added, to become the "Happy Foil Board".



liquidforcect.co.za/product/happy-pill/


Also - Fantastic vid Livit but the only thing it inspired me to do is go to work and do something I'm actually good at and save money to pay someone else to make my gear
Oh and a new level of respect for Pumpnjump's, Luc, Scubaste, and the other home builders on here.

... why do the foil boards have to be directional? Why can't they be made like TTs?

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Kamikuza said..
... why do the foil boards have to be directional? Why can't they be made like TTs?

That's a damn fine question.